Digital Surveillance and Everyday Democracy
Abstract
The post-Snowden disclosures about the practices of the Five Eyes alliance highlight central features of contemporary international politics affecting human rights, liberal regimes and democratic practices. The cornerstone of the rise of transnational surveillance actors is the centrifugal dynamics under which asymmetric cooperation between intelligence agencies has expanded hugely, while the easiness of intrusive surveillance of large groups of suspects, and the capacity to legalise such surveillance, has been justified by the context of a global counter-terrorism; necessitating, in the view of the services, politicians and most of their contractors, the monitoring of everyday practices of communication to detect anomalies and abnormal behaviours in order to prevent terrorist attacks. The lecture will analyse these different features and how they are transforming international politics and everyday democratic practices.